Health advocates clash with chemical industry as Congress proposes TSCA changes
Scientists and health advocates say proposed changes to a key US chemicals safety law would upend protections for children and other vulnerable populations suffering from toxic exposures, while industry leaders argue the changes would help them get new chemicals to market without sacrificing safety.
Senate Republicans draft bill aimed to speed up new chemical reviews
Senate Republicans released a draft discussion bill on Thursday aimed at loosening the nation’s premier chemical safety law with the goal of reducing chemical review delays.
Industry reports point to potential farm waste energy boom amid federal scrutiny
Farmers across the US are leaving potential energy lying on their fields, and have the ability to reap billions of dollars in revenue by turning animal manure, crop and food waste into natural gas, according to two industry reports released this month.
Trump executive order on glyphosate is a “fake news fantasy”
Wherever Trump looks, he sees existential threats to America that do not exist. He invents fantasy crises as a pretext to exercise emergency powers, like the emergency tariffs just invalidated by the Supreme Court.
Senate vote sets up a clash over Boundary Waters environmental safeguards
The US Senate is poised to vote on a resolution intended to eventually open a long-disputed copper mine close to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northeast Minnesota, triggering protests from environmentalists who fear the action will diminish the government’s ability to protect America’s cleanest waters, most exquisite forests, and wildest natural landscapes.
Not so fast – lawyers for cancer victims see “red flags” in Bayer’s $7.25 billion Roundup settlement deal
A group of 14 law firms representing nearly 20,000 plaintiffs is seeking to intervene in Bayer’s proposed class action settlement of Roundup litigation, citing concerns that the settlement deal will not be fair to cancer victims.
Bayer cites Trump support in Supreme Court Roundup battle
In an opening salvo aimed at convincing the US Supreme Court to curtail costly Roundup litigation, Bayer is citing support from President Donald Trump and US regulators while renewing a threat to stop sales of glyphosate-based herbicides to farmers if it does not prevail with the justices.
EPA official touts controversial TSCA reforms
A top US regulatory official on Monday championed controversial chemical review reforms that critics say will support industry interests while weakening protections against toxic chemicals for the public.
Wisconsin manure digester at the center of USDA loan trouble
Five years after the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) guaranteed more than $100 million to what’s billed as the “world’s largest manure biogas project”, the loans are in delinquency, which, along with operational failures and underperformance at such plants, has seemingly prompted an agency-wide pause on loan guarantees for such projects, according to The New Lede’s analysis of federal data.
USDA has “sufficient opportunities” to respond to PFAS crisis on farmland, report finds
Federal regulators have a range of solutions available to tackle the widespread contamination of farmland with toxic chemicals, according to a new report by US academics.